Cultural Center of Nitéroi

The Post Office Palace, located in Niterói, is the result of several factors that stimulated the construction of the building. Firstly, the Decree No. 7,653, dated 11/11/1909, that established the new Regulation of the Organization, presented among its objectives the construction of new Post Office headquarters in the capitals of the States.

In the city of Niterói, the decision to edify a new building was also influenced by a local representative group that presented to the President of Republic, Hermes da Fonseca, an undersigned claiming that the city should have a place that would offer the properly conditions for the operation of the mail. Until then the service was provided in a small and precarious property, located next to the boats station.

In the Federal Capital, Rio de Janeiro, after the appreciation of the request contained in the undersigned, the president decided that the Union should acquire a plot of land next to the boats station in order to construct a new building for mail service purpose. The place that was chosen was located across the road where the old post office used to be by that time.

The plans of the building are dated 1910 and authored by the Italian architect Antonio Vannine. The work was executed by the construction company Leopoldo Cunha e Cia. On November 14, 1914 the building was inaugurated. The imposing construction, the height of the new building compared to the surrounding edifications and its architectural exuberance gave it the title of Post Office Palace.

Since its construction, the Palace always held the operation of postal and telegraphic services, including, a former headquarters of the Regional Direction of the Brazilian Post Office in the State of Rio de Janeiro. However, in 2007 the building was closed for renovation and restoration works and its reopening took place seven years later on March 21, 2014, the year of celebration of the centenary of the Palace. In order to celebrate the occasion, the first floor of the building held the photographic exhibition of the artist Pedro Vasquez called “Right Here – Niterói seen through the lens of Pedro Vasquez”, with 50 photos of known places of the city. The objective of this exhibition was to present to the public one of the activities that would later exist in the building with the inauguration of the Cultural Space.

In addition to the renovation of the structure of the building, there was the restoration of the entire façade and various interior elements such as doors, windows, wooden floor, central staircase, handrail etc. The total investment in the renovation of the building was R$16 millions.

One of the rooms, located on the second floor, has been completely restored. Inside this historic room the visitors can enjoy the original features of the interior of the building. Several layers of ink were removed, so the original colors and designs that ornament the bottom and top parts of the walls and ceiling can be seen again. The wooden doors are original as well as the Peroba wood flooring.

In this historic room are also exposed two architectural plans, several hydraulic tiles whose models are found on the floors of internal circulation, some adornments of the facade and a set of molds that produced the copper scales of the domes of the towers of the Palace.

The Cultural Space

The Cultural Space was created on November 14, 2014, the date of the centenary of the Post Office Palace. The inauguration was marked by the exhibition "Djanira - chronicler of rites, painter of manners", with an expose of 120 works of the artist, belonging to the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Rio de Janeiro.

In the first floor of the Cultural Space building there are two exhibition rooms and a workshop room. In the second floor there are four exhibition rooms, the historic room and an auditorium that holds different kinds of cultural events.

Check out the floor plans of the Cultural Space of The Brazilian Post Office in Niterói: Plant 01, Plant 02.